Good Friday pilgrimage leaves two dead

Published: Saturday, April 22, 2000

CHIMAYO, N.M. {AP} Two teen-agers making a Good Friday pilgrimage together to a church reputed to contain healing dirt were found shot to death several miles apart along one of the most popular routes for the annual trek to the Roman Catholic shrine.

"I can't recall there being an incident like this" during the annual pilgrimage to El Santuario de Chimayo, which draws tens of thousands each Easter season, said state police Capt. Carlos Maldonado.

The teens were identified as Richard R. Martinez, 17, of La Villita, and Karen Castanon, 17, of Arroyo Seco. Both were juniors at Los Alamos High School and had dated since their freshman year.

The deaths are being investigated as homicides, but police had no suspects, said state police Sgt. Royleen Ross-Weaver.

"At this point, we are making a public plea for anyone to come forward with any information. ... We suspect there were people (other pilgrims) in the area," she said.

The slain boy's father, Ray Martinez, told The Associated Press that his son was a good student, active in sports and very religious.

"He was a beautiful kid, now he's gone. I'm still in shock," he said while sitting in his son's bedroom at the family home in La Villita, northwest of Chimayo.

The teen's room was adorned by sports jerseys, football helmets and photographs of Castanon. One photo showed the high school sweethearts kissing. The engraved wooden frame read, "this moment will last forever."

The boy's mother, Gerri Martinez, said: "My son was perfect. He didn't have any enemies. He was the light of our life. ... My baby didn't deserve this."

Carmelina Sweeney, a friend of Castanon's, was in Chimayo and told KOAT-TV: "Who would want to do something like that to her?"

Police were looking for a late model black Dodge 4-by-4 seen in the area about the time Martinez was shot, but Ross-Weaver said there were no witnesses to the shooting.

A state police officer driving N.M. 76 about 5:15 a.m. came across someone giving Martinez CPR in the road about four miles east of Espanola, Ross-Weaver said. Officers did not identify the person trying to resuscitate the boy.

Police learned from family members that Castanon was with him and immediately began looking for her. About five hours after Martinez's body was found, someone trying to get around the blockaded road found the girl's body in an area called Leopoldo's Arroyo, Ross-Weaver said.

"They took a detour across the hills and stumbled upon the body," she said.

She could not say whether the girl was shot where she was found.

State police diverted travelers around a yellow-taped section of the road for several hours after Martinez was found. Officers cut a nearby fence and sent pilgrims through a rocky field, and directed motorists to N.M. 503.

"The body was right in the middle of the road," Tim Archuleta, deputy city editor for The Albuquerque Tribune, who was making the trek with his family, told his paper. "You could see that police were doing all they could to keep this from affecting the pilgrimage. They had hung blue and yellow vinyl tarps over the barbed wire fence to shield the body from those of us walking by."

Still, he said, the blanket-covered body was visible about 9 a.m. when he and his family came by.

"News of the body spread pretty quickly," he said. "There were a couple of women who were crying when they walked by. They didn't know anything about the victim except that he was a young boy, and they were pretty torn up about it."

Pilgrim Marlene Martinez of Albuquerque, no relation to the victim, said the killings were a shock.

"It's supposed to be a holy day," she said. "That was really sad."

"It's pretty pathetic. ... They will pay and they'll have to answer to God for what they did," said another, Crystal Morfin, 18, of Taos.

The shootings left some pilgrims fearful. Tamara Lopez, 15, who lives two miles from the church, always walks over on Good Friday, but this year she was afraid.

"My mom was afraid even to let me come," and her aunt and uncle accompanied her at their insistence, she said from outside a village shop that sells religious items.

State police increased patrols along the pilgrimage routes and called in more officers.

For nearly 200 years, pilgrims have journeyed to the tiny village. Last year, an estimated 65,000 people visited the church during Holy Week.

In the back of the church, in a room next to the sanctuary, is a small hole whose dirt is thought to possess healing power. Left in the room are crutches and canes of those who now walk and rosaries from those who believe.

Cristino Edwell was making the trek, as he has in recent years, carrying a 3-foot wooden cross over his shoulder as a symbol of gratitude for his prayers being answered on a pilgrimage 29 years ago.

That year, the walk from Santa Fe took Edwell 27 hours using walking canes. He prayed for healing for his back, which he injured falling 10 feet from a scaffold. That day, Edwell left his walking canes at the church.

Now it takes the 52-year-old retired welder only seven hours to complete the trek.

He started off at 3 a.m. Thursday on the nearly 30-mile walk along U.S. 84-285, making the pilgrimage mostly alone to give him time to reflect on Christ's crucifixion.

Diane Gonzales of Santa Fe has been coming to the Santuario since her parents took her as a small child to cure her eczema.

"I rubbed the dirt on my skin, and it made the itching stop. When I had my two daughters, I passed the tradition of the healing dirt along to them.

"It's not about the dirt making miracles, but the faith you must have to make it come true."